Amor poi che non poi far me morire

Michael Pesenti was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. This secular madrigal for SATB voices is set to an Italian text expressing the singer's despair at unrequited love. The lyrics describe how Love, unable to kill the singer, instead forces him to live as if dead. His beloved flees from him like a solitary, shy deer, and his only comfort comes from dreams, as Love deprives him of waking solace. The poem laments this cruel fate, suggesting that any comfort can only be found in death.